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Fish & Seafood

Salmon is one of those fishes I really love to grill. It turns out so good, and it is quick and easy to make too. So, today I’m going to show you how to make grilled ginger salmon. This recipe uses a simple basting sauce that gives the salmon some great flavor.

Grilled Ginger Salmon Recipe

Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct grilling over medium heat. While your grill is warming up grab a small mixing bowl and combine the honey, ketchup, ginger, salt, and hot pepper sauce. Mix it all together well. For the hot pepper sauce you can use anything you would like such as Tabasco sauce, or what I usually use is Sriracha sauce. You can get some here.

Once your grill is heated up brush the grill grate with some vegetable oil. This is important, because fish has a tendency to stick to the grill. Place the salmon fillets skin side down on the grill over the heat. Cover and cook for 8 minutes.

Once it is done remove from the grill and serve. This salmon is so good; you and your family will really like it. The basting sauce gives it a great flavor. One other thing you may want to try is using grilling planks. Cedar planks will give the salmon a bit of smoky flavor, and you also won’t have to worry about the fish sticking to the grill. Here are the cedar grilling planks I use. They are nice to use because they add a great flavor to your grilled fish.

image courtesy of avlxyz/flickr

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I’ve got a tasty one for you today, Pecan Grilled Salmon. The great thing about this recipe is that it is quick and easy, but it has some great flavor. I love grilled salmon, and I think you are going to love this one too.

Grilled Pecan Salmon

Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct grilling over medium-high heat. Make sure you brush your grill grate with some oil because fish has a tendency to stick. Another thing you could do is cook on cedar grilling planks.

Once your grill is heated and the grate is brushed with oil, brush both sides of the salmon fillet with a bit of olive oil. Place the fillet skin side down on the grill. Cover and grill for about 5 minutes.

While the salmon is cooking in a small bowl mix together the mayo and the Dijon mustard. In another small bowl mix the croutons and pecans together. After the salmon has cooked for 5 minutes spread the mayo mixture on the salmon and sprinkle on the crouton/pecan mixture. Grill for about another 1 to 2 minutes.

Once the salmon is done it will start flaking away with a fork, and the internal temperature will be 145F. You can take the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer like the one I use. Once it is done remove from the grill and serve.

As you can see pecan grilled salmon is a quick and easy grilled meal, that I’m sure you will love. Give it a try.

image courtesy of jrandallc/flickr

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Today I’m going to show you how to grill oysters. Oysters are really good grilled, and they are easy to make too. I think that the grill gives them such a great flavor even more so than when cooked by other methods.

The key to making great grilled oysters is making sure they are fresh. When you are buying oysters you want to make sure that the shells are closed tightly, or that they close when you tap on them. They should also smell briny, and not fishy. This is what you want to do to make sure you have the freshest oysters. Throw away any that are not.

Let’s get to grilling the oysters. Get yourself 2 dozen large oysters; make sure they are fresh. Scrub the shells with a stiff brush to get off any mud or grit. Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct grilling over high heat.

Once the grill is heated place the oysters on the grate with the more concave side down. Grill them for about 5 to 8 minutes; the shells will pop open. Once they are done transfer them to a platter with a pair of tongs. If there are some oysters that didn’t pop open, throw them out. Pull of the top shell, and pull the cooked oyster off the top shell and put it on the bottom shell in all the juices.

Now it is time to serve them straight up, or with you favorite toppings. I like mine with a bit of salsa, or some hot sauce. Some Wasabi is always good too. There really isn’t any limit to the possible topping you could put on your oysters, just experiment and find what you like best. This is how to grill oysters that turn out really good, and grill up quick and easy.

A great tool to have if you like oysters is an oyster knife. If you are using other cooking methods than what I showed you here, or you want to take off the top shell before grilling you are going to want to shuck the oysters. Here is the tool I use; it makes shucking oysters quick and easy.

image courtesy of donhomer/flickr

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Today I’m going to show you how to grill a salmon fillet in foil. Salmon fillets turn out really good when they are grilled in foil because the foil locks in all the flavor. The nice thing about grill with foil is it is easy and it grills up quick.

Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct grilling over medium-low heat. While the grill is heating, tear 4 large sheets of aluminum foil. Place a salmon fillet in the center of each of the sheets. Brush ½ tbsp vegetable oil on both sides of each salmon fillet. Sprinkle each fillet with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Take the lemon slices and place 3 of them on top of each salmon fillet.

Fold 2 sides of the aluminum foil up over the salmon so the edges meet. Seal the edges, and then fold the edge once more. Fold the other edges of the foil over to seal the other sides. Do this for all 4 pieces.

Place the foil packets on the grill over the heat. Grill for approximately 12 to 16 minutes, turning the packets halfway through grilling. The salmon will be finished when if flakes easily with a fork.

Once done remove from the grill and place on a platter. Slice a large X into the top of each packet, and carefully fold back the foil to allow the steam to escape. That is how to grill a salmon fillet in foil that turns out great.

If I don’t grill my salmon fillets in foil, I like to grill them on one of these.

image courtesy of James Bowe/flickr

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Today I’m going to show you how to grill soft shell crabs. A soft shell crab is a blue crab that has just shed its shell. At this point you can eat its shell and all. It is sweet and juicy and has a crispy crunch from the new shell. Usually people fry soft shell crabs in a pan, but we are going to be cooking them on the grill.

Soft shell crabs are really easy to grill; the only somewhat hard part is cleaning them. If possible you can have the folks at your local fish market clean them for you, but if that isn’t possible, I’ll tell you how to do it.

Live crabs are always best, but if that isn’t possible, fresh or frozen will work too. To clean your soft shell crabs you will need a pair of kitchen shears, I use these. They cut through everything from chicken to crabs. Using your kitchen shears cut the eyes and mouth off the front of the crab. If you were using live crabs, this will kill them instantly. You will want to do this over a bowl because it can be rather juicy.

Flip the crab on its back and pull off its apron. This is the tab you will see on the belly. Now flip the crabs back over so the back is up. Peel back the carapace on each side, but don’t pull it off. Underneath you will see the gills; they kind of look like feathers; scrape or pull them off with your knife or fingers. That is it. It isn’t that hard, but it is definitely easier to have the fish market do it.

In order to get a nice crispy shell on the crabs you are going to want to baste them really well. I like to use a garlic butter that I will have set up on the grill as well. Some people like to flour their soft shell crabs too before dipping in butter, you can try that too if you’d like.

Here is what you will need to grill up soft shell crabs:

As you can see I’ve got bread, lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce listed. Soft shell crabs are great to make into sandwiches, so that is what I’ll be doing.

Alright with your crabs all cleaned and prepped it is time to fire up the grill. Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct grilling over high heat. I like to keep one area of the grill at about medium to heat the garlic butter and keep it warm for basting. If you are using a gas grill that has side burners you can use that too. I like cast iron so I use this one for basting the crabs. You are just going to need something that is wide enough to dip them in.

Combine the garlic and the butter into the pot and mix until melted. Once everything is ready using a pair of tongs dip each soft shell crab into the garlic butter, shake off the excess and place them on the grill. Grill for approximately 2 to 4 minutes per side, the shells will be a deep red when they are cooked.

Once done transfer them to a plate. Arrange them into sandwiches with some grilled bread, lettuce, tomatoes, and tartar sauce. That is how to grill soft shell crabs that turn out great. These make for some really awesome sandwiches.

image courtesy of flickr4jazz/flickr

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You may have grilled fish fillets and/or fish steaks before, but have you ever tried grilling a whole fish? Today I’m going to show you how to grill a large whole fish. Grilling a large whole fish is really impressive looking, and they turn out wonderfully. It looks like they would be hard to grill, but it is actually very simple. Let me show you how easy it can be.

When I want to grill a large whole fish, I usually go with a salmon, just because I really like it on the grill. However you could go with a striped bass or a snapper as well. When I grill a whole salmon, I go with one that is around 7 to 9 pounds with its head removed. If you are going to go with a salmon and type will do. The types that are available usually depend upon your location. Atlantic, Coho, Sockeye, and Chinook are all great choices.

I like to keep things simple when I grill a large whole fish. For basting I’m going to just go with lemon, dill, garlic, and butter. I will get more into the basting sauce in a minute, but here is everything you will need if you are following along with my recipe.

Now that you have your large fish, let’s clean it up a bit. If you bought a fish with the head on you can leave it on, or cut it off. When grilling a large fish it can be a tight squeeze to fit it on the grill if you leave the head on. Using a kitchen shears, here is the one I use, cut the fins and gills off the salmon. Also trim the jagged edges off of the tail. You can do this by cutting a v-shape. Rinse under cold water and blot dry with paper towels.

Once that is done make several deep, diagonal cuts to the bone on each side of the salmon. I usually do about 4 or 5 slashes on each side. Season the inside cavity of the salmon with some coarse salt and black pepper. Place about half the sliced lemon and dill sprigs into the cavity as well. Stick the remaining lemon and dill springs into the slices on both sides of the fish.

Stir the chopped dill and minced garlic into the melted butter; we are going to use it to baste the salmon. I like to use this cast iron basting set because I can easily keep it warm on the grill. Brush both sides of the fish with this mixture and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. For ease of moving the salmon on and off the grill I suggest you make a cardboard template of the fish to move it. What you will need is a large piece of cardboard trimmed slightly smaller than your fish. Wrap the cardboard with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Slide the salmon onto this cardboard support.

Set up your gas or charcoal grill for indirect grilling over medium heat. If you are using charcoal place a drip pan in the center and the coals on the opposite side. Once the grill is ready place the salmon, which should be on the cardboard onto the grill away from the heat. If you are using a gas grill just place the salmon away from the burner you have on.

Grill the salmon for about 45 minutes to 1 hour basting several times throughout cooking with the garlic dill butter sauce. To test that it is done you can look at the meat next to the backbone, it will be opaque not translucent. Another test would be to press the fish with your finger, the meat will break into clean flakes when it is done.

Once done transfer the salmon to a large platter and season with a bit of salt and pepper. Take a knife and run it along the backbone to separate the top fillet. Lift it off the bones in sections. Remove the bones and serve. That is how to grill a large whole fish. It is really that simple. You can also experiment with all kinds of basting sauces, seasonings, and marinades to make it uniquely yours.